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Thursday, December 4, 2014

After reading a book written on the US activity in southeast Asia during the 50s and 60s, I was struck by the parallels between the current situation in the middle east.

According to Tillman Durdin, news correspondent for southeast Asia during the late 50s and 60s, the countries of that region were strongly nationalistic and therefore incapable of coming together in confederation. In additional they held a strong anti-US sentiment and desire for independence, but being weak they relied heavily on outside aid, including from Europe, the US, the Soviet Union, and China. The pull between western democracy and eastern communist interests made southeast Asia an ideal place to wage an ideological war; capitalism versus communism. Of course, the US entered into the now infamous war in Vietnam, which was predated by several other skirmishes in the region and this is where the parallels come in.